Amazon Kindle customers will have the ability to read their content on the Mac when the official application is launched in the future; and Google Chrome inches closer to release with its developer preview.
Kindle reader coming to Mac
Amazon announced alongside the launch of Windows 7 Thursday that it would bring a desktop reader client to PCs. A company spokesperson later confirmed to Fast Company that the book seller also intends to release software for Mac OS X in the future.
As the Kindle platform has matured, Amazon has worked to take it beyond its e-reader hardware and onto other devices. In March, the company debuted its Kindle reader on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. The software allows readers to access their content and sync what page they were last on to a number of devices.
Apple and Amazon could soon compete in the e-reader market, as rumors have suggested for months that the Cupertino, Calif., company's long-rumored tablet device will, in part, function as a portable device designed to transform newspapers, magazines and other print media into digital content. The tablet is expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2010.
Google Chrome adds QuickTime, printing
The latest release of Google Chrome for Mac this week is another milestone in the Web browser's long path to Mac OS X: the official developer preview. On the official blog, the development team announced that QuickTime and printing have made their initial appearance in the browser.
As first reported by ArsTechnica, the latest build is the first time the Mac OS X browser has been available for public download outside of nightly development builds. The report noted that the browser seems stable enough for daily use.
The Chrome is expected to come to the Mac with version 4.0 sometime this year, though it is not yet in beta. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, said that he wishes the browser had already been released and was more stable.
In August, a test of an early version of Chrome 4.0 for Mac found it was the fastest browser on the platform by 34 percent. Google's then-bug-filled browser outperformed Apple's Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera 10 in a SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test.